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Western Garden Book (Sunset Western Garden Book)

Gardeners throughout the region will be welcoming a thoroughly updated and fresh- looking 8th edition of the bible of Western gardening. With a new, easy-to-read design, more plant photography, larger illustrations, and more than 8,000 plant listings500 of them newits THE essential book for gardeners in the Western states. What plants to grow, how to nurture them, and where they do the very bestits all here. Youll also find updated information on the Western climate zones, 30 Plant Selection Guides, plus a Practical Guide to Gardening with basic advice on plant care and essential gardening techniques. New plant lists reflect current trends, such as Mediterranean gardening and easy-care plants for beginners. For more than 70 years, Sunset has been the source for no-nonsense gardening advice, easy-to-follow diagrams, and encyclopedic knowledge of plant varieties. In this edition, we introduce an exciting new feature: gardening tips from well-known plant experts throughout the West. The Western Garden Book has never been better!

Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations

Barefoot Contessa Parties! Ideas and Recipes for Easy Parties That Are Really Fun

After more than twenty years of running Barefoot Contessa, the acclaimed specialty food store, Ina Garten published her first collection of recipes. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook was an overnight sensation, but it's the kind of success that can only be g

"A good party is not about the food," says Ina Garten, "it's about the people." That may be true, but her Barefoot Contessa Parties! will ensure that your next party is a fabulous one, regardless of your guest list. Garten, author of The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and a monthly column in Martha Stewart Living, has been catering since 1978. So who better to put together a collection of entertaining theme parties? She's included everything from drinks and hors d'oeuvres to dessert and coffee, as well as notes about what "surprises," atmospheres, venues, and table decorations lend themselves to each. Because she likes to attend her own parties (and who doesn't?), almost every recipe is make-ahead and remarkably uncomplicated.

From casual get-togethers, such as the Pizza Party--which includes recipes for Caesar Salad with Pancetta, California Pizzas that your guests can assemble themselves, and Ice-Cream Sodas--to the elegant Academy Awards dinner--where your guests will enjoy Raspberry Vodka, Rori's Potato Chips with Caviar Dip, Smoked Salmon with Mesclun, Filet of Beef with Gorgonzola Sauce, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Garlic Roasted Potatoes, and Chocolate Ganache Cake--Garten's parties are well thought out and well organized. Divided by season, you'll look forward to Summer's Outdoor Grill, which starts with Real Margaritas, followed by Endive and Avocado Salad, Grilled Herb Shrimp with Mango Salsa, Spaghettoni al Pesto, Tomato Fennel Salad, and Peach Raspberry Shortcakes for dessert. Autumn brings beautiful menus like the one where you cook with your guests and end up with a feast of Potato Pancakes with Caviar, Salad with Warm Goat Cheese, Rack of Lamb, Orzo with Roasted Vegetables, and Apple Crostata. Winter's menus bring soul-warming food, such as Seafood Chowder, Butternut Squash and Apple Soup, and a recipe for possibly the world's best Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Spring offers menus such as the Sunday Breakfast, with a main course of Roasted Asparagus with Scrambled Eggs, and the Jewish Holiday Party, with Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls.

Filled with funny party anecdotes, a bit of Ina Garten history, and clever hints and tips to help guarantee the success of these recipes, this collection, subtitled "Ideas and Recipes for Easy Parties That Are Really Fun," delivers on every count. --Leora Y. Bloom

Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide To Hosting the Perfect Funeral

American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques

The American Horticultural Society's Plant Propagation is one of those stuck-on-a-desert-island books. All the information you could ever possibly want in order to propagate virtually any plant or tree or cactus or succulent that might be growing on said desert island is to be found somewhere between the covers of this marvelous, informative book. If you're tired of buying many pots of expensive perennials, tuck a copy of Plant Propagation under your arm and buy one good specimen. From that specimen, following the simple directions, make many plants. It's the kind of skill that all grandmothers of a more distant generation seemed to have.

Still mixed up about hypogeal and epigeal germination? Can't tell a bulbil from a cormel? The very first section covers all the basics of plant biology as well as the history and basic how-to of propagation. The body of the book is divided into "Garden Trees," "Shrubs and Climbing Plants," "Perennials, Annuals and Biennials," "Cacti and Other Succulents," "Bulbous Plants," and "Vegetables." Each section begins with an overview of appropriate propagation techniques: the many styles of grafting, seed saving, taking cuttings, and bulb and root division. Individual plants within each section are addressed alphabetically. With Plant Propagation in hand, you can hybridize your own rose and name it after yourself. The text is written to an intelligent, somewhat experienced gardening reader, and the lush illustrations are accurate and effective. --Schuyler Ingle

The unrivaled priatical guide to the successful propagation of all garden plants -- from trees and shrubs to culinary herbs.

Expert Guidance On The Propagation Of More Than 1,500 Plants. Whether you want to increase your plants by the easiest or most reliable methods of propagation, or experiment with more unusual or advanced techniques, or use specialized techniques for a favorite plant group, AHS Plant Propagation contains all the techniques you need in easy-to-follow, step-by-step explanations such as: What is is the best way to propogate a plant? Each entry in the A-Z section of Plant Propagation tells you, plant by plant, which method of propagation to use, when to do it, and what degree of skill each method requires. How can you improve germination of seeds? AHS Plant Propagation tells you which seeds need special treatment before sowing and how to provide the conditions to ensure a good rate of germination. How long does it take to obtain a flowering plant? AHS Plant Propagation gives guidelines on the average success rate for each plant, how big a yield you can expect, and how long it should take to get a mature or flowering plant. How do you make sure cuttings won't fail? AHS Plant Propagation tells you how to take appropriate cuttings from each type of plant and how to make sure they root successfully. Destined to become the standard work on the subject, AHS Plant Propagation is the practical handbook gardeners have been waiting for.

Paula Deen Celebrates!: Best Dishes and Best Wishes for the Best Times of Your Life

Fans of Food Network star Paula Deen enjoy her unpretentious Southern-gal persona as much as her easy, what's-not-to-like recipes. As a writer of four other cookbooks, including The Lady & Sons Just Desserts, restaurant owner, and purveyor of her own product line, she's also something of an entrepreneur. In Paul Deen Celebrates! she offers 170-plus recipes arranged by menus for traditional holidays and other, sometimes whimsical celebrations like Elvis's Birthday and Movie-Watching Pizza Party in Bed. The recipes, which are often Southern-rich, range from the more traditional, such as Shrimp Etouffé, Muffuletta Sandwiches, and Macaroni Salad, to the innovative, including Collard Green Wantons, Grilled Chicken Pita, and Scallop and Bacon Pizza. Her sweets include the likes of Old Fashioned Banana Pudding, Gooey Toffee Butter Cake and Margarita Mousse. Offered also are decorating tips, and "Paula's Pearls of Wisdom" like "treasure today's moment's because they will tomorrow's memories."

Deen's dishes couldn't be more approachable and will doubtlessly inspire many holiday menus. Readers should know, however, that she regularly calls for convenience products like cake mixes and canned soups, whose use (by now something of an American tradition in itself) can do little to make homemade food taste as good as it otherwise might. Paula Deen Celebrates! should, however, excite Deen's many fans, who, along with the attractive formulas, receive lots of "back-story" on the author's own celebrations, life, and mostly good times. --Arthur Boehm

Beloved Food Network personality, restaurateur, and author Paula Deen loves a party, and in her latest book, Paula Deen Celebrates!, Paula shares with fans old and new how she celebrates a year's worth of holidays and special occasions. Now anyone can share in the down-home celebrations Paula, her husband, Michael, their kids, and extended family enjoy at their beautiful home in Savannah, Georgia.

What better way to start off the New Year than with a New Year's Eve Brunch with friends -- at midnight! This colorful celebration includes Crab and Spinach Casserole and Baked Tomatoes, and finishes with a quintessentially southern Hummingbird Cake and Irish Coffee. Welcome St. Patrick's Day, Savannah style, with Lamb Stew and Green Grits Pie. The centerpiece of an Easter dinner is a Peanut Butter-Glazed Ham, accompanied by Spinach-Swiss Casserole, Squash Boats, and flaky Butterhorns, with a bonus recipe for Ham Salad that makes eating leftovers a treat. Looking for a reason to party, south-of-the-border style? Try Paula's Cinco de Mayo Fiesta menu, with Macho Nachos and a cool and creamy Margarita Mousse. Paula honors the memory of her mother, and all the other women who have blessed her life, with a Mother's Day Tea of dainty sandwiches and irresistible cookies served on her best china, and fathers get their due with a Father's Day Boating Picnic. The Fourth of July is the perfect occasion for an Outdoor Grill Party and Low-Country Boil, and if what you want is a quiet evening at home, pop a movie in the DVD player and chow down on your choice of Paula's savory and sweet pizzas. Gather the family to watch some football and savor Jamie's Cheeseburger Pies, and give family and friends the gift of a sweet treat at the holidays with Paula's Icebox Fruitcake or Peppermint Bark. Her Christmas feast starts with Cranberry Holiday Brie and stars an impressive Standing Rib Roast, with Twice-Baked Potato Casserole. The show-stopping dessert is Paula's butter-laden Coconut Pound Cake glazed with coconut syrup and covered with icing and toasted coconut!

Paula brings you into her home, her kitchen, and her heart with family stories and photographs. This time, her husband, Michael, sons Jamie and Bobby, and brother, Bubba, chime in to share their memories, too. Decorating and serving ideas will inspire you to use what you have to carry through a theme to make the most informal meal special. And Paula shares her most private thoughts in a special feature -- Paula's Pearls of Wisdom -- which you'll find with each menu.

Paula Deen Celebrates! is Paula at her very southern best. Join her in making and sharing her best dishes for the best times of your life.

California Native Plants for the Garden

California Native Plants for the Garden is a comprehensive resource that features more than 500 of the best California native plants for gardening in Mediterranean-climate areas of the world. Authored by three of the state's leading native-plant horticulturists and illustrated with 450 color photos, this reference book also includes chapters on landscape design, installation, and maintenance. Detailed lists of recommended native plants for a variety of situations and appendices with information on places to see native plants and where to buy them are also provided.

Weeds of the Northeast (Comstock Books)

Lidia's Family Table: More Than 200 Fabulous Recipes to Enjoy Every Day-With Wonderful Ideas for Variations and Improvisations

Lidia's Family Table by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich"The best-loved and most-admired of all AmericaÆs television cooks today, Lidia Bastianich, now gives us her most generous, instructive, and creative cookbook. The emphasis here is on cooking for the fami

Warm and calmly authoritative, Lidia Bastianich has won the trust of many cooks, who also devour her TV shows and books including Lidia's Italian Table and Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen. Lidia's Family Table also presents homey Italian fare--savory dishes like Cauliflower Soup with Poached Garlic Purée; Potato, Leek, and Bacon Ravioli; Skillet Green Beans with Gorgonzola; and Grilled Tuna Rollatini Under Tomato-Lemon Marinade--over 200 recipes in all. But Family Table is equally about technique; readers will find it crammed with instructive asides like "Using 'Pasta Water' to Make a Quick Sauce" (the water's starchiness can add body to sauces) and "Reduced Wine Vinegar for Vegetables" (heat-concentrated vinegar makes a deliciously mellow seasoning).

But the teaching doesn't stop there. Bastianich's discussions of risotto and polenta are particularly good (when preparing risotto, for example, the liquid must simmer for the dish to become properly toothsome), while a section on quick skillet sauces, like one made with sausage, onions, and fennel, will get many readers to the kitchen pronto. Bastianich also offers advice for preparing lesser-known yet attractive meat cuts like shoulder and butt, as well as quick-take recipes for the likes of whole corn cooked in tomato sauce and eggplant with scrambled eggs. The Bastianich approach also applies to the dessert section, which offers simple fruit-based sweets like Fig Focaccia, and Crostata with Poached Apricots and Pignolala. (Included, too, are a number of simple strudel recipes, a bow to the cooking of Istria, Bastianich's birthplace.) Color photos make succinct technical points as well as showing Lidia's extended family at table and very much in action. --Arthur Boehm

Gardening All-in-One for Dummies

God almighty first planted a garden: and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.
-- Sir Francis Bacon

National surveys show that gardening has become the most popular, least exclusive hobby nationwide. From the balconies of Manhattan to the patios of Malibu to the backyards of Chicago, anybody with a few square feet of earth is doing their best to make their little corner of the world more gracious and beautiful. And the best thing is, you really dont have to be born with a green thumb to give life to a glorious garden. Anybody can do it with a little coaching. Which is where Gardening For Dummies comes in.

Puzzled by pruning? Baffled by bulbs? Cant tell a hosta from a hyacinth? Dont worry! This all-in-one reference delivers the know-how you need to transform your little patch of the outdoors into a blooming paradise. Drawing upon the expertise of the National Gardening Association, it gets you up to speed on:

• Basic gardening skillsfrom understanding your microclimate to using gardening tools to managing pests and common plant diseases
• How to design, plan and build a garden landscape that reflects your unique sense of style
• Selecting, planting and maintaining stunning roses
• Building a raised bed for your perennials and making them bloom in any climate
• Choose, grow and maintain annuals
• From amaryllis to spider dahlias to wood tulipscoaxing beauty from homely bulbs
• Enjoying natures bounty by growing you own vegetables and herbs

A veritable encyclopedia of gardening, this Gardening For Dummies is an indispensable resource for novices and experienced gardeners alike. It brings together between the covers of a single volume seven great books covering:

• Gardening Basics
• Garden Design
• Roses
• Perennials
• Annuals
• Bulbs
• Vegetables and Herbs

Your one-step guide to a beautiful garden, Gardening For Dummies shows you how to experience the purest of human pleasures in your own backyard.